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<title>True Family Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry (For Kicking Your Friend's Terrible Father's Ass) by through-the-stars-to-the-pavement (delicate_mageflower)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038549">True Family Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry (For Kicking Your Friend's Terrible Father's Ass)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicate_mageflower/pseuds/through-the-stars-to-the-pavement'>through-the-stars-to-the-pavement (delicate_mageflower)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sun, Stars, Earth [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A Bit of an Emotional Rollercoaster, Alcohol, And Gets Their Fucking Revenge, Author Is Drunk and Finds This Hilarious, Awkward Pregnancy Announcements, But neither does anyone else, F/M, Flashbacks, Found Family, Gen, I Don't Even Fucking Know Man, Implied Sexual Content, Katara does not fuck around, Kyoshi approves, M/M, Multi, Overprotective Katara, Ozai is The Worst™, Past Child Abuse, Post-Hundred Year War - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Revenge, The gaang finds out about the scar, this went off the rails</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:28:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicate_mageflower/pseuds/through-the-stars-to-the-pavement</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Katara has a deep need to strike back at Ozai for what he did to Zuko. Turns out she's not the only one. And only Aang seems to take any issue with this.</p><p>(This fic is dedicated to and at many points inspired by my very best friend, Keerstan.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sun, Stars, Earth [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967482</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>887</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>True Family Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry (For Kicking Your Friend's Terrible Father's Ass)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I first wrote about the Gaang finding out about the scar <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25671160">in this fic</a> and felt the need to build on that.</p><p>Keerstan is the one who gave me the idea about Sokka's particular choice of vengeance (only in her version it was sharpening a sword instead of playing with a boomerang), and then everything went downhill (or uphill, lol) from there.</p><p>Also please note I myself am an abuse survivior and the fact I am currently a bit drunk and ended up making what began as a very serious and intense writing endeavor into a ridiculous and hilarious rollercoaster is in no way making light of abuse. If anything, that's probably <i>why</i> this whole thing became so fucking funny to me. And I relate deeply to Zuko and I love him with all my heart. But this just…happened. And honestly, I'm standing by it. So, umm, yeah. Here it is.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Damn, that sounds intense. What happened?”</p><p>Toph had asked so casually about the scar, the question almost didn’t register. Of course she hadn’t known. Her seismic sight is so incredible it can sometimes be easy to forget, no matter how many jokes she cracks about her blindness, but of course she hadn’t known.</p><p>War is over. Has been for years. It was long since past when this conversation started, too.</p><p>But for Zuko, war is never over. He’s been at war since birth, and he is warring now all the same. It’s just different these days.</p><p>He had mentioned without thinking that it still hurts sometimes, but he knows that pain is all in his head. He doesn’t remember how it came up. He forgot the second Toph started asking questions.</p><p>She learned of its size, of its severity. What everyone else already knew but never pried into. So he didn’t expect Toph to follow up on it. None of their other friends ever had.</p><p>He felt himself drowning in his newfound need to explain himself. The memory pulled him under, losing himself in it as he described it, imaginary water filling his lungs even as he felt what had once been the very real fire on his face like it was happening all over again.</p><p>He broke down. He was gone, caught in the tide, the strong current taking him too far from shore, holding him down as it <i>burned.</i></p><p>He was vaguely aware of Sokka and Suki gripping his hands. He barely felt it.</p><p>Next thing he knew, he was curled up in the fetal position on the ground, rocking back and forth, and Iroh was there doing his best to calm him. He didn’t remember the conversations that resulted before Aang and Appa took off to get help. He didn’t remember them leaving, either.</p><p>Everyone was so kind, so sympathetic. Sokka and Suki never left his side. Katara was enraged, the angriest Zuko had ever seen her, but she was quick to assure him as he returned to the present that she wasn’t mad at him, that he hadn’t done anything wrong and it wasn’t his fault.</p><p>Sokka told him later that just meant Katara truly did care about him. He told him later she had said she wished she’d known sooner, that she would likely have been much more forgiving much earlier on. Zuko told Sokka he didn’t deserve that kind of forgiveness, that he should have been forced to earn it as he was. Sokka told him that was exactly what he had told Katara when she said it, too.</p><p>Zuko laughed. Sokka did not.</p><p>Katara, Aang, and Toph are currently visiting the Fire Nation. A family reunion. It’s nice having them close by, if only for a short time. They haven’t all been in the same place at the same time in too long.</p><p>They haven’t visited since before that talk they had outside Ba Sing Se. Katara has not forgotten.</p><p>Aang may have believed he was doing the right thing the day of Sozin’s Comet, but now he may yet regret not killing a certain disgraced former Fire Lord when he had the chance.</p><p>And Katara loves Aang, and she respected his following his conscience at the time. But she has to follow hers, too, and Aang is just going to have to live with that.</p><p>She herself couldn’t bring herself to kill Yon Rha, and she has no intention of killing Ozai. But she’ll be damned if she isn’t going to make him bleed.</p><p>After dinner their first night in town, Katara slips away. She has a mission. She is determined.</p><p>There are guards at the entrance to the deep space which houses only Ozai. Katara scoffs, unsure why they even need to bother. The man is helpless anymore. Although she supposes he does still have enough supporters who would love to overthrow Zuko that they can never be too careful.</p><p>She, however, is not here to help. The guards will let her through.</p><p>She readies herself in her head, though, just in case.</p><p>
  <i>Do you know who I am? I am a master waterbender. Possibly the most powerful waterbender alive today. I am capable of things you cannot even imagine. I am one of the Fire Lord’s best friends. I am the Avatar’s wife. But I do not need them to destroy you; I can do that all by myself. Do not fuck with me.</i>
</p><p>She takes a deep breath as she descends into the dungeons.</p><p>
  <i>I am basically the Fire Lord’s sister in-law. This is personal. This is a family matter. Get the fuck out of my way.</i>
</p><p>She knows she could not say that, though. She doesn’t know who all knows and in all honesty, neither Sokka nor Zuko nor Suki really do, either. Katara wouldn’t risk their safety like that. But it’s true. She and Zuko were practically family before he got involved with her brother, but now Zuko is fucking stuck with her.</p><p>“Lady Katara?” a guard stops her at the top of the steps.</p><p>It’s good she’s recognized. This will most likely help her cause.</p><p>“It’s <i>Master</i> Katara,” she says sternly. “And I’m here for a visit.”</p><p>“By all means.”</p><p>She thinks she hears the tiniest crack of fear in his voice.</p><p>
  <i>Good.</i>
</p><p>Ozai doesn’t acknowledge her when she reaches him. Asshole probably still thinks himself above interacting with peasants.</p><p>
  <i>Ha. I’m a master and a war hero. I’m a fucking legend. What the fuck are you?</i>
</p><p>She isn’t normally so arrogant, even in her own head. But she isn’t usually so angry, either, and her ire fuels her confidence fuels her conviction.</p><p>“I guess sometimes the phoenix just chokes on its own ashes, huh?” she says with a cruel smirk.</p><p>She doesn’t even sound like herself. Aang would not like this side of her. She’s not actually sure how Zuko would feel about it, either.</p><p>But they’re not here.</p><p>And she is going to hurt this man. But no more than he deserves. In fact, far less.</p><p>“I didn’t always agree with Aang’s decision to let you live, you know,” she continues. “But now? Now I think maybe it is better this way. Killing you would have been letting you off far too easy. You deserve to <i>suffer.”</i></p><p>With her firm stress on that last word, she opens her water pouch and splashes its contents all over his face. She instantly freezes what makes contact, and then she kneels to look him dead in the eyes.</p><p>“I know about Zuko’s scar. I know who did it and why. You <i>monster,</i> how do you justify mauling a thirteen year old boy like that? A child crawling on his hands and knees, begging you for mercy? And you <i>attack?</i> You set his fucking face on fire? A kid not even trying to defend himself? What a fucking coward. You think you were so powerful, you thought you were going to leave your mark on history, but the only mark you ever made was on an innocent child’s face. You <i>will</i> be remembered, I’m sure. But history will not be kind. And neither will I.”</p><p>Ozai is growling through his teeth, visibly trying not to howl in pain. Katara is considering the stages of frostbite in her head, how long she should leave him like this and the amount of damage she could do.</p><p>She thinks about how she could burn his face like he burned Zuko’s. But no, that she <i>cannot</i> do. She doesn’t give a fuck about how it would hurt Ozai, but she knows it would hurt <i>Zuko,</i> treating that kind of mark as revenge. He still struggles so much with having to see his face like that every day, no matter how many years he’s had it. He still struggles having to be reminded he didn’t deserve the punishment which forever changed his reflection, and Katara fears marking Ozai so similarly would only reinforce to Zuko that such a scar truly is a punishment which had to have been earned.</p><p>She bends the water back into her hands, and Ozai’s face is already bright red. Some skin comes off with it.</p><p>
  <i>Oh well.</i>
</p><p>The water comes for him again, turns back into ice, this time in long frozen spears. They pierce through his shoulders, his chest, between his ribs. They break skin, dig into muscle and tissue, narrowly avoiding vital organs.</p><p>“Is that all you’ve got, little girl?” he seethes.</p><p>“I’m not here to end your life,” she answers. “I’m just here to make you hurt.”</p><p>“You’re weak,” he taunts. “You’re weak just like the Avatar, and just like your <i>dear friend,</i> my worthless son.”</p><p>“Zuko is <i>not</i> your son. Don’t you <i>dare</i> ever call him that again. You don’t deserve him.”</p><p>She wiggles her fingers, jarring the ice picks. She doesn’t stop until he can no longer contain his screaming. Ice melts and drips down his body, mixing with blood from his wounds.</p><p>She can’t stay down here too long, she doesn’t want to risk any of her family coming to look for her. She has no regrets about what she’s doing, but she does not wish to be caught in the act. She doesn’t want anyone else to see her like this.</p><p>She hasn’t told anyone but Aang yet that she’s pregnant, but if he knew she was behaving this way he’d be upset enough even if she wasn’t carrying his child. It would make it so much worse that she is.</p><p>But <i>she</i> knows, and that thought makes her blood boil all that much more. <i>No one</i> will ever harm her child the way this man had harmed his. And she will not allow such an act to go unpunished.</p><p>She shifts again, and the water slithers down around Ozai’s wrists. She decides to leave him like this, with ice cuffs pinning him to the floor.</p><p>It will melt eventually, without her there to hold it. She is satisfied.</p><p>Ozai’s screams aren’t anywhere near on par with the screaming she’s heard from Zuko in the middle of the night while camping out. She was once too full of spite and distrust to ask. Now that she has come to love Zuko like a brother, she almost wishes she had never learned.</p><p>Katara runs back upstairs, ignoring the guard staring at her with wide eyes as she bolts away from the scene.</p><p>Ozai doesn’t know how lucky he is it’s not a full moon. She still finds bloodbending abhorrent, but that didn’t stop her with the leader of the Southern Raiders and it sure as shit wouldn’t have stopped her here if she’d had the option.</p><p>“Where have you been?” Aang asks her the very second she returns to the parlor room their group is occupying. Zuko, Sokka, and Suki are all a little drunk. Aang is completely sober. Toph is <i>plastered.</i></p><p>Everyone looks concerned. She doesn’t even want to ask how long she’d been gone.</p><p>“Umm…I had to use the bathroom. Took forever to find one. This palace is <i>huge.</i> So, anyway…”</p><p>“I know you’re lying,” Toph laughs, speaking in a sing-song voice which chills Katara to the bone, because now she knows she’s as good as caught.</p><p>Katara wonders if any of them will ever remember they can’t lie with Toph around. And that Toph has no filter. And that this fact is a thousand times worse when she’s drunk.</p><p>“Katara, sweetie…” Aang is deeply uncomfortable, like on some level he knows.</p><p>They weren’t planning on making the announcement they came here to make until tomorrow anyway, so at least <i>that</i> isn’t currently being disrupted, but this evening is not off to a great start regardless.</p><p>“Toph?” Aang asks directly. It is entirely possible she knows exactly where Katara was. Katara can only hope Toph wasn’t looking for her.</p><p>“Oooooh, <i>someone’s</i> in trouble!” Toph is speaking with that same sing-song and Katara briefly considers bending the pot of hot sake in the middle of the room straight into Toph’s face, but quickly decides against it.</p><p>But Sokka, she notices, is staring right into her soul. He <i>does</i> know, without a doubt. She doesn’t know how he knows, but he <i>knows.</i></p><p>Sokka is slightly amused by Katara’s flustering. He realizes this is the first time she’s been back to the Fire Nation since they found out the truth behind Zuko’s banishment. If he’s honest with himself, he’s wondered ever since that revelation if she was ever going to do something about it. He suspected the second she disappeared today that the answer was yes.</p><p>He is also slightly in awe, because if she is this flustered then she must not have been fucking around. For a moment he is actively afraid of his little sister. He doesn’t yet know <i>exactly</i> what she did, but he knows she did <i>something,</i> and he knows what she <i>can</i> do. Katara is very rarely the vengeful type, but when she is…</p><p>Even the darkest depths of the spirit world has no fury like his sister.</p><p>“Katara, you didn’t…”</p><p>“Really, Sokka? I’m surprised you <i>actually</i> didn’t!”</p><p>“Oh no.” Zuko’s caught on.</p><p>“What? ‘Oh no’ <i>what?”</i> Aang still hasn’t.</p><p>“Katara!” Sokka mocks offense. “You should know me better than that! I would never hurt anyone to defend my love’s honor.”</p><p>“Lying!”</p><p>“Ahem. As I was saying. I just like to visit him from time to time and, umm, talk to him. About, you know, stuff. And things.”</p><p>“Oh, <i>no.”</i> Zuko’s cheeks flush and he downs a tall glass of sorghum liquor and watermelon juice like it’s a shot.</p><p>“More booze, please!” Toph calls to a passing servant, and she is <i>cackling.</i></p><p>She definitely knows, too.</p><p>“Nothing says payback like flinging around a boomerang while staring deep into a man’s eyes and telling him all about how <i>very, very well</i> you’re fucking his ‘son.’”</p><p>“Nope! Can’t hear you!” Katara raises her hands to cover her ears. “I am <i>not</i> listening!”</p><p>“I am!” Toph laughs even harder.</p><p>“Okay, that’s kind of hot,” Suki offers. “I just stabbed him.”</p><p>“You what?” Aang shouts. “Are we talking about Ozai? I didn’t spare him just so you could all—”</p><p>“Kyoshi, back me up here!” Suki interrupts, and she could <i>swear</i> Aang’s eyes glow for a split second in approval.</p><p>“But you <i>did</i> spare him,” Zuko snickers. “You should seriously have known better. So if anything, this is <i>your</i> fault.”</p><p>Katara puts her hands back down just in time to hear Zuko add, “And Sokka? Umm, yeah, that’s <i>really</i> hot.”</p><p>“Why?” Katara groans. “Why, oh why, what have I done to deserve…”</p><p>“Well, what <i>did</i> you do?” Aang demands, and no one even stops when servants roll in carts of bottles for them, presumably making one large trip so they don’t have to return to whatever the fuck is happening here anytime soon.</p><p>“Apparently nothing everyone else hasn’t already done!” Katara shouts defensively. “Which is a relief! I would have been very disappointed in all of you if I’d really been the first!”</p><p>“Okay but how is this the first <i>I’m</i> hearing about any of this?” Zuko can’t stop smiling. This is wonderful.</p><p>“I might have told the guard I saw that I know where he lives and that if he told on me I’d chop his balls off and feed them to him while he slept,” Suki says with a shrug.</p><p>“Holy shit,” Toph responds. “Uh, she’s <i>not</i> lying. Sokka, Zuko, proceed with <i>caution.”</i></p><p>“Oh, <i>they</i> have nothing to worry about,” Suki chuckles, and she finishes her drink and pours herself a new one.</p><p>“Okay, still not lying. Good to know.”</p><p>“Well, I didn’t hurt him,” Sokka notes. “Not physically, anyway.”</p><p>“I think you did <i>far</i> worse,” Suki points out, and Zuko emits this strange, happy little half-hum, half-sigh that makes Sokka’s pupils blow wide open.</p><p>“Yeah. Mmm, yeah, I really did. Heh.”</p><p>“Fuckers never saw <i>me</i> coming,” Toph boasts.</p><p>“Oh no, <i>oh no.”</i> Zuko is beaming. This is amazing.</p><p>“I didn’t do anything <i>too</i> terrible,” Toph explains. “I only broke some bars off his cell door and rammed them through his limbs to stick him to the wall. He deserved <i>way</i> worse.”</p><p><i>“What the fuck.”</i> Zuko may never have looked so happy. “That must have taken the healers <i>days</i> to fix! How did I never hear about <i>that?”</i></p><p>“Suki’s got threats. I don’t need ‘em.”</p><p>“Zuko,” Aang turns in abject horror. “You’re really okay with this? He’s still your—”</p><p>And for the second time today, Katara puts a stop to that train of thought.</p><p>“Don’t. You. Dare.”</p><p>“What, Katara? He is—”</p><p>“I said, <i>don’t you fucking dare.”</i></p><p>Everyone is quiet now. No one is laughing anymore.</p><p>Katara takes a deep breath. “That <i>thing</i> down there is <i>not</i> Zuko’s dad. He isn’t <i>anyone’s</i> dad. Iroh is Zuko’s dad. <i>My dad</i> is Zuko’s dad. Ozai has <i>no such claim.</i> He forfeited that right a long time ago. I’m sorry, Zuko, I know I don’t get to tell you how to feel, but… Don’t think for a second blood ties mean you owe <i>anything</i> to that monster. <i>We</i> are your family. He doesn’t deserve you, and you deserve better. And <i>Aang,</i> I thought better of <i>you.</i> I figured being raised by monks would mean you would <i>understand</i> family doesn’t always have to mean anything traditional!”</p><p>“Katara, calm down, I’m sorry, you’re right…”</p><p>Sokka’s a little relieved to see the fear in Aang’s eyes watching Katara lay into him like that. It’s nice to know he’s not the only one to ever react that way to Katara’s anger.</p><p>“Nah, Katara, you’re good,” Zuko replies calmly. “I’m touched.”</p><p>“Thank you, Zuko,” Katara exhales, now actually trying to calm herself. “I just… I do <i>not</i> want to start our family in a world where <i>that</i> is an acceptable definition of ‘family.’ That is <i>not</i> okay and that is <i>not</i> the kind of world <i>or</i> the kind of family I ever want to encourage.”</p><p>“Waaaaaaaait a minute,” Toph starts, and Katara instantly realizes what she’s given away. “You’re starting a what now?”</p><p>“Umm… Surprise!” Katara gives a very large, very awkward, and <i>very</i> forced smile.</p><p>“Yeah, uh,” Aang scrambles. “That’s, umm, kind of why we came here and wanted to get everyone together.”</p><p>“Exchanging tips on how to torture the abusive, murderous fuckface in the basement was just an added bonus!” Sokka brings back the laughter.</p><p>“Well, congratulations!” Suki exclaims. “Sokka, you’re gonna be an uncle!”</p><p>“You’re <i>all</i> going to be aunts and uncles,” Katara corrects. “Mai and Ty Lee, too. Because <i>we</i> are family.”</p><p>“That’s great news,” Zuko keeps on smiling.</p><p>“Weirdest pregnancy announcement ever,” Toph comments in perfect deadpan, but she can’t keep a straight face for long.</p><p>“This is not at all how I pictured it,” Aang mutters.</p><p>“That’s your problem, twinkle toes. I say this is perfect!”</p><p>“So, everyone but Katara’s getting shitfaced to celebrate, right?” Suki asks as she pours herself another round.</p><p>“Actually, babe, if the look on Zuko’s face is anything to go by, I think we need to split so I can tell Ozai all about it later,” Sokka whispers in a manner which was obviously intended to be loud enough for all to hear.</p><p>Zuko, for his part, turns bright red, but does not protest.</p><p>“Sokka, no!” Katara shouts, but everyone is still laughing and laughing and laughing.</p><p>“Yeah, hate to break it to you, Madame Fussy Britches, but he wasn’t joking.”</p><p>“Toph, I think <i>you</i> have had enough.”</p><p>“Hey, you’re gonna have a real kid of your own to boss around now! You don’t need to pretend to be <i>my</i> mom anymore!”</p><p>“Or mine,” Sokka agrees. “So…”</p><p>“Suki, how do you live with this?” Katara teases.</p><p>“Umm…<i>very, very well,”</i> Suki replies, mimicking the same tone of voice Sokka said those same words in earlier.</p><p>“Forget I asked! I regret everything!”</p><p>And Sokka does, in fact, walk out hand in hand with both Suki and Zuko, the three of them stumbling and giggling as they exit.</p><p>This has indeed been one of the weirdest evenings their group has ever spent together, but Toph was right that it’s kind of perfect.</p><p>Because Zuko has been at war since birth, and for him the war will never truly be over.</p><p>But he has a family now. He has love he could never have dreamed he’d find. And for just a little while, he feels almost at peace.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26558572">Sokka v. Ozai</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwriterrr/pseuds/badwriterrr">badwriterrr</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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